Should I hire an in-house developer or outsource?

In the process of creating a website for your business, you may
have wondered what the best way is to go about finding and
hiring a talented developer to put it all together for you.

Traditionally, you may look for what is called a full-stack developer to work on your website.

“Full-stack” means that the developer understands the front-end website development as well as the connecting back-end server and database programming.

They have a truly comprehensive knowledge of how to develop a website and everything that goes along with that process.

Fortunately, this is a role that you can also hire a third-party company to handle for you as well.

A digital marketing agency such as this usually has their own full-stack developers on staff to handle the creation and maintenance of websites for the clients they service.

So what is the better option? Should you hire a developer with your company to do it in- house or outsource it to a web design agency?

As a smart business owner, you know the best way to evaluate a decision is by the numbers. So let’s start there and see how these options stack up.

Factor 1: Total Costs

Full-stack developer salaries average $110,472 in the United States 1 .

Depending on your area, you may be able to hire a junior full-stack developer somewhere in the range of $60k to $100k.

You also have to consider other costs such as health insurance, dental, retirement matching and any other costs that your company includes as part of an overall compensation package.

If you add in additional costs such as taxes, equipment, and any additional training required then it can get quite pricey to add a developer to your team.

After all that, sure you might have a competent developer on your staff but what about the alternative?

You may be able to acquire agency website design services for hundreds of dollars per month versus the thousands you would pay a staff developer.

With this option you save tens of thousands of dollars per year and don’t have to worry about the traditional costs of hiring a new employee.

Factor 2: Level of Support

The second thing to consider is the level of support your company will receive. A staff developer is really only as good as their availability.

As an employee they have to be able to take vacations, sick days, and potentially be out for any number of reasons.

In fact, the average paid time off for a U.S. employee is around three weeks. 2

You or your team are left to pick up the slack during those times unless
you hire another developer to fill in which adds additional costs.

A website development company is always a phone call or email away and typically has their own team in place to support your website needs.

If one developer is out, there is another to fill in for them. This doesn’t cost you anything extra other than the monthly fee you already pay your development agency. The support is always there when you need it.

Factor 3: Hiring Considerations

How do you know how good your developer is? Any time you hire somebody there is a risk that they may not be the best fit for the position. As a small business owner it may not be very easy to evaluate a full-stack developer as a potential hire.

This is doubly true if you are not a developer yourself or are unable to gauge how well they may perform the job.

This can really impact the bottom line in your business. The U.S.

Department of Labor estimates that a bad hire costs a business
at least 30% of the employee’s first year earnings 3 .

What if your developer is not as good as you need them to be?

Can you afford to spend upwards of six figures on such an important
role in your business and not get it right?

By hiring a website design company, you put the onus on the agency to hire, train, and utilize the best developers possible.

Any developers working on your projects are vetted by other experienced developers to ensure that you have talented people at the ready.

The agency option puts a team at your disposal that can get
your website built, maintained, and performing for your business.

The Final Verdict

So now that you have looked at all the numbers for these two options
for web development services, what do you think the smart decision
for your business is?

Obviously, it appears you get significantly more bang for your buck by hiring a web design company. Let’s look at the advantages once more:

Less cost:

By getting your web design services through an agency
you pay a monthly retainer fee and avoid salary and
other employee costs.

More support:

You have to worry about an in-house development employee
taking time off and being able to fill in the gaps when they
are gone.

By hiring a web development company, this is no longer a problem.

Get the right people:

By using an agency to handle your development needs, you can be sure that a pool of talented developers is working on your website year round.

“What should I do now?”

Are you ready to hire a website development company to service your business needs?

RBD is a web development company and online marketing agency
that gives business owners peace of mind by providing the website services they deserve.

RBD can provide full-stack web development services and support that you can be confident in with none of the worry or cost of hiring a new employee.

If you would like to see your marketing
budget go further then contact us today!